The present invention relates to cookware utensils and, more particularly, cookware utensils that are manufactured to form a unitary body.
The use of a single continuous piece of material to construct a cookware utensil imposes certain design constraints on the cookware manufacture. The cookware manufacture is limited, for example, to the particular characteristics associated with the selected material. Carbonized steel, for instance, bonds well with enamel coatings and may therefore be easily treated with a colored enamel coating to provide a smooth and attractive finish to the cookware. Carbonized steel, however, is also prone to corrosion. Therefore, a cooking utensil constructed from a single piece of carbonized steel may be susceptible to corrosion where the enamel coating chips and exposes the underlying carbon steel. Indeed, conditions similar to these can occur in an enamel-coated pasta cooker insert if, for example, the edges of the water flow apertures on the basket portion of the insert are not completely coated with enamel during the manufacturing process.
Circumstances such as these may sometimes lead a manufacturer to instead construct the cookware utensil from a stainless steel material, which resists corrosion. A design choice of this sort, however, can be a trade-off, insofar as enamel coatings do not bond well to stainless steel.
For these and other reasons it is often desirable to manufacture a cooking utensil from separate pieces rather than from a single continuous piece of material. This can result in a greater flexibility in cookware design. Such an alternative, however, requires a practical means for assembling and securing the various components together in a secure and cost-effective manner.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a unitary cooking utensil that may be assembled from two or more separate pieces in a secure and cost-effective manner.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an efficient method for constructing a unitary cooking utensil that may be assembled quickly, easily, and securely.